Cal rang the doorbell to the apartment after blindly making it to the high-rise building from an address sent over text.

After hearing a bit of shuffling inside, the door opened to reveal a tall, spectacled man with tied up graying hair. His appearance was a bit disheveled as if he hadn't gotten enough sleep.

"Hi, Dad," Cal said casually, "long time no see."

He seemed a bit shocked for a second, then smiled broadly.

"Cal! I didn't expect to see you!" he said, stepping aside. "Come in, come in!"

Cal did as he instructed and stepped into the apartment. It was spacious and well-decorated, almost to the point of not seeming lived in. The only messy area was a desk with a computer situated in the corner – papers were strewn about, some even littering the floor nearby.

"I'm sorry for not texting you before showing up," Cal said, "To be honest, I didn't really expect to be stopping by."

"Ah, that's fine," her dad replied with a smile. "I told you to come by anytime. I'm bad with texting anyway."

Her father motioned her to sit on the sofa which was a trendy sectional. She did so, hesitantly removing her backpack to place on the floor in front of her.

"I've got some coffee from my recent trip to Columbia," her dad said. "Want some?"

"Uh...sure, sounds interesting."

As her father disappeared into the kitchen to brew the drinks, Cal rested her face in her hands. What was she even doing? Her mind had gone blank after the incident with Grace, but the last thing she wanted was to see her mother at a time like this. So her feet carried her here, to the apartment that her father said he'd been staying in after recently flying into town.

Although she had never spent much time with her dad at all, especially growing up, she never really felt awkward around him. She'd gotten in touch with him since she started high school when he reached out to her and her sister. There were apparently times he tried to see them prior to that, but her mom forbid him, and they didn't have enough autonomy to speak with him themselves yet.

She didn't see him particularly often since he was usually out of the country much less the state, but she talked to him over text and call sometimes. He enjoyed sending her pictures from his expeditions and he'd promised to take her on a trip to wherever she wanted once she graduated.

Not that she was sure she'd ever take him up on it.

Her dad returned to the living room with two steaming cups, setting one on the coffee table in front of Cal. He sat in an adjacent sofa chair.

"So, what's new?" he asked. "Likin' the new school?"

"Well, it's better than the old one," Cal replied.

"I guess that's something then."

"I'm surprised you decided to rent an apartment here when you move around so much," Cal stated.

"Ah, no, it's not mine," her dad replied. "A friend of mine is letting me rent it out while he's away on holiday."

"You sure have a ton of connections..."

There was a moment of awkward silence as her dad appeared to try his hardest to come up with something to talk about. Cal knew he couldn't just outright ask 'so what did you come here for?'. Not that he'd probably mind if Cal came here without a reason, but it would certainly be a bit out of character. Normally it was her dad who initiated actual face-to-face meetings.

"I wanted to ask you something," Cal said finally, taking a sip of her coffee.

"Oh, alright," her dad said, sounding a bit taken aback. "Shoot."

Cal paused, staring into the dark liquid inside her mug. "Do you ever regret leaving us?"

Now her dad was certainly taken aback. Cal rarely tread on this territory – she normally preferred to ignore the elephant in the room and just pretend to have a normal, yet hands-off relationship with her father.

"Well," her dad began, "I regret not being there for you girls. It was an irresponsible decision that I'll pay for the rest of my life."

He reached up to scratch the back of his neck, searching for the right words.

"But I can't say I regret the decision itself," he finally said. He sighed. "I grew up in a strict household where I was expected to follow a particular track in life. So I did, for thirty some years. I went to school, climbed the ranks in a big company, married an attorney, had kids..."

He trailed off, taking a sip of his coffee.

"But one day I couldn't stand it. Figured I had two choices – kill myself or run away. It was a childish way of thinking, but that's how it went down, and I chose to run away. It was stupid and selfish, but I just would've lived and died a hollow shell."

Her father placed the mug back on the coffee table and looked Cal in the eye. "You have every right to hate me for what I did, just like your sister does. Nothing I can do will make up for the fact that I left, and I'm not interested in making excuses. But I'll do what I can to be there for you now and in the future."

It was difficult for Cal to feel either touched or angry at her father. She couldn't say she ever particularly hated him in the way her mother and sister did, no matter how often they bad-mouthed him. She couldn't say she'd ever really have a normal father-daughter relationship, and somehow, she was content with that, and happy he didn't try to force it.

"I understand," Cal said. "I don't exactly forgive you, but I also can't completely blame you for wanting to leave someone like my mom."

Cal's dad seemed a little uncomfortable at the mention of her mother. "Ah, well...your mother and I only seemed to get along when I was pretending to be someone else. It could never have worked out."

That was one thing Cal really liked about her father. He never badmouthed Cal's mother, never tried to push his view of her onto Cal. It was a breath of fresh air compared to her house where she couldn't even say the man's name without inciting a massive argument.

"But I'm guessing you didn't just come here to hear about the past," her dad said. "Is something eating you up now?"

"Well..." Cal looked down at her lap, clenching and unclenching her fists. "There's this girl at my high school."

"Ooh, I should've known this would be about love," her father chuckled.

"Ah, shut it," Cal replied, blushing. "We didn't get off on the right foot, but I've been hanging out with this girl for a while now, and, you know..."

Her dad just flashed her a knowing smile.

"Well, we got in a big fight," Cal continued. She originally intended to be more vague, but she found herself telling her dad the entire story. The fact he only had a secondary connection to her life seemed to make it easier to talk about all the details, down to her own feelings. He was quiet, taking in the information, allowing her to go on what was basically a massive rant.

After she was finished talking about Grace and the rumors and Sarah and all that, he leaned back and took a sip of his coffee.

"Well, I can understand wanting to be cautious, especially after the whole incident at your last school," he began. "But you don't have all the facts. You've got to sit down and have a talk about all this."

"I know," Cal sighed. "I guess I'm just scared. I was so upset by everything that I just ended up coming here...I guess I felt like you'd understand."

Her father smiled and put a hand on her shoulder. They rarely showed any physical affection towards each other, but somehow, Cal felt comforted by the action. "I'm glad you think that. I've done and seen a lot in my day, so I wouldn't judge you for anything."

They were quiet for a few seconds, and her dad leaned back, standing up to collect Cal's now empty mug with his.

"I think you just got freaked out, and that's alright," he said. "But go talk to her. You don't know if things will turn out okay, but if you let fear prevent you from trying, you'll probably regret it."

He turned to head into the kitchen to wash the coffee mugs, leaving Cal to her thoughts.

She already knew what she should probably do before even coming to her dad's apartment, but hearing it out loud strengthened her conviction. Honestly, she probably just needed someone who would listen to her. Not that she'd ever confide in her mother, but if she did, her mom would stop her at the whole "romantically interested in a girl again" part.

I'm just an idiot, Cal thought, unsure of whether she was because she was setting herself up to get hurt again or because she was putting too much faith in rumors.

Regardless, she knew what she had to do.